As marketers switch gears on campaigns to make them more relevant for a COVID-19 operating environment, some remain steadfast on philanthropic messaging.
The annual Easter event on L.A.’s Skid Row may have been canceled last weekend, but that didn’t stop Etnies’ Pierre-André Senizergues from carrying out his annual tradition.
The skater and founder of Lake Forest-based Sole Technology Inc.—OC’s largest privately held and still founder-led skate shoe company—has been giving out Etnies shoes for the last 23 years to L.A.’s homeless during the Los Angeles Mission Easter Event.
This year’s Mission event was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but Etnies was still there giving shoes to the homeless.
This year, the company also sought to ramp public participation.
The footwear company ran a program online from April 9-12 in which it donated one pair of shoes to the homeless for every pair sold in its online shop during that time period.
Etnies met its goal this year of bringing its total donation to date to 50,000 pairs of shoes. The Los Angeles Mission reported 53,195 homeless people currently in Los Angeles County.
Senizergues said continuing the tradition “means even more right now, knowing the heightened state of vulnerability so many people are living in as the COVID-19 crisis continues.”
Senizergues started Etnies in 1986 and continues to operate it today along with the action sports brands Emerica, Altamont and ThirtyTwo.
Kia’s Work
Automakers have reworked campaigns to tout deferred payment programs and concierge services that promote social distancing. Some marketing devised pre-coronavirus have been maintained for some.
Irvine-based Kia Motors America Inc. continued its youth homelessness awareness campaign, under the umbrella program “Accelerate the Good,” donating $1 million to Covenant House, StandUp for Kids and Family Promise among other nonprofits.
“With shelter-in-place orders all but impossible for the estimated 4.2 million homeless youth in the U.S. to adhere to, we are humbled to once again provide financial assistance to organizations dedicated to helping this at-risk population,” Kia Motors America President Michael Cole said.
The “Accelerate the Good” program is broad, with Kia also donating under that banner N95 masks to local medical facilities last month and bolstering safety net programs for existing and new Kia car buyers as a result of the pandemic, in line with local automakers Hyundai Motor America Inc., Genesis Motor America and Mazda North American Operations.
For Kia specifically, that includes as much as 120-day deferrals on vehicle payments and lease and warranty extensions.
All of this follows a donation made earlier this year after launching the “Yards Against Homelessness” campaign during the Super Bowl, which included a spot during the big game telling Las Vegas Raiders’ Josh Jacobs’ own personal story with homelessness.
